Three Hundred Games & Pastimes - complete online book

A Book Of Suggestions For Children's Games And Employments.

A splendid game of shop can be played while the furnishing is going on ; in fact, from the moment you have the bare house a board or sign with " To be Let or Sold" will quickly attract house-hunting dolls, and when a couple have taken it they will have their days full of shopping before it is ready for them. You will, of course, yourself be the manufacturers and shop­keepers. It is well to make out careful bills for everything sold, and the more things you can display in your show-rooms the better. All house-hunting dolls require plenty of money.

Windows have been mentioned, but they are not by any means a necessity. Yet even if you cannot have windows, you should put up curtains, for they make the rooms prettier. Blinds can be made of linen, edged at the bottom with a piece of lace, and nailed on the wall just above the window. During the day these are rolled up and tied. White curtains should be bordered with lace and run on a piece of tape, which can be nailed or pinned on both sides of the window. They will then draw. The stuff curtains can be hung on a pencil (which may be gilded or left its own colour) supported by two picture screws. Fasten these curtains back with narrow ribbons. Some dolls' houses, of course, are fitted with real doors. But if you do not have these, it is perhaps well to hang the doorway with curtains, also on pencils.

The floors can be stained or painted either all over or round the edges. Carpets are better not made of ordinary carpet, for it is much too thick, but of coloured canvas, or chintz, or thin felt, or serge. A rug made of a plain coloured material with a cross-stitch or embroidered pattern around it is very pretty. Fine matting can also be used, and American cloth is excellent for the kitchen.

In another place in this book (pp. 185-190) will be found instructions for making furniture for very small and simple dolls' houses; but for a good dolls' house with several good-sized-rooms you would probably prefer, for the most part, to use